Classes and workshops are ongoing throughout the day.
Tickets include entrance to any classes within the time slot shown on your ticket, but space is limited.
Tickets include entrance to any classes within the time slot shown on your ticket, but space is limited.
Tasting Room
Morning Session
- 11:00-11:45: Hot Chocolate, Haitian Style: Back by popular demand! Gentilé Sénat, co-owner of Askanya Chocolates, will demonstrate how to easily make hot chocolate, in the Haitian style. Tasting to follow demo.
- 12:00-12:45: Join The Sweet & Savory Sisters, Chocolate Sommelier Sophia Rea, former chef to celebrities, and Master Foodie Mara Papatheodorou, former editor at Bon Appetit, for a chocolate tasting & talk featuring the flavors of Provence. Together they present an informative mouthwatering journey that delves into the enticing world of chocolate and its surprising suitors. They will share the flavorful fun, facts, and folklore about cacao and the Provencal inclusions that add appreciation to the joyful experience of tasting chocolate!
- 13:00-13:45: What's In Your Chocolate: Explaining Labels, Exploding Myths, Exploring History, Experiencing Flavor: Learn how to decipher chocolate bar labels while we taste our way through chocolate history to the cutting edge of craft chocolate, in this upbeat talk and tasting presented by chocolate expert Valerie Beck.
Afternoon Session
- 14:30-15:15: Nutrition and Health: What's inside that amazing chocolate bar? Kathy Stroh (MS, RD, LDN, CDCES) will review nutrients in cacao/chocolate as well as research about possible health benefits of chocolate.
- 15:30-16:15: Intersection of Psychology and Physiology in Flavor Perception: Jessica Henderson will explore how the brain captures and integrates incoming sensory information with previous experiences and expectations to create your unique flavor experience. Lecture will integrate with tasting samples to help you fully understand what influences your perception of flavor.
While this presentation explores the palate with chocolate, the concepts presented are also relevant to other foods and beverages. Expand your understanding and increase your enjoyment of all the things you taste! - 16:30-17:15: Meditate with Cacao (Christina Kim from Secret Cacao Garden): Cacao has been used as a sacred ceremonial plant medicine since ancient Chinchipe, Olmec, and Mayan times. This tradition has been passed down for generations to come. Celebrating life, death, fertility, Mother Earth, and community, cacao is still used today in many indigenous and modern societies. Learn how to gather with cacao in community, and take home this sacred wisdom. Please wear comfortable clothes for sitting.
Auditorium
Morning Session
- 11:00-11:45: Why is chocolate Mexican? Like Champagne is to wine or Turkey is to coffee, our neighbor to the south has a unique and loud claim to chocolate history and culture. One can't spot a chocolate retail shop or at a specialty coffee shop that does not serve a Mexican chocolate item; probably high in spice or cinnamon content. Join Boston University professor Jose Lopez Ganem to learn about Mexico's role in contemporary chocolate culture and how it came to be so ubiquitously related to our spicy treats.
- 12:00-12:45: Can sustainable chocolate exist? A panel discussion mediated by Alain d’Aboville, the author of "CacaoSource - An Emerging Sustainable Chocolate Landscape". Panel: Mark Christian, publisher, the C-spot.com/co-founder, Landmark Wild Chocolate Reserve; Marioano D'Aguiar, founder, co-owner of River-Sea Chocolate; Jose Lopez Ganem, FCCI, professor at Boston University; Brian LoBue, founder, co-owner of Kokoa Kamili; Ben Rasmussen, owner, founder of Potomac Chocolate
- 13:00-13:45: An Academic in the Chocolate Aisle: Figuring out your chocolate choice among many options can be an overwhelming task, and things get even harder when we add our personal or political values to our shopping list! Join Harvard University professor Carla Martin for a discussion regarding the best way to approach a chocolate purchase while accounting for an array of personal choices that you wish to privilege.
Afternoon Session
- 14:30-15:15: Tropical CHOCOLATE ISLAND™: Welcome to Trinidad & Tobago in the Caribbean & the Launch of C3 (Cocoa / CO2 / Community): Trinidad & Tobago is home to the Cocoa Research Centre — the Noah’s Ark of cacáo — which moors the largest genebank of its kind in the world. Join us as we set out on a novel course for the IMPOSSIBLE Chocolate Bar™ (Ingredients: NO child labor, dirt poor wages, deforestation, pesticides, contaminants, etc.etc.)
Panel: Pathmanathan Umaharan, Director, Cocoa Research Centre, Trinidad & Tobago; Marisol Slater, DC Chocolate Festival organizer / Events & Education Director - DC Chocolate House; John Forrer, Director, Institute of Corporate Responsibility, George Washington University; Mark Christian, publisher, the C-spot.com / co-founder, Landmark Wild Chocolate Reserve - 15:30-16:15: Spilling the Beans: A Tanzanian Cacao Origin Story: Historically, African cocoa beans have been the foundation source of bulk chocolate, often sourced via opaque layers of middlemen using dubious practices. However, a growing number of African origins over the last 30 years have elevated quality to compete with other fine flavor origins in bean to bar chocolate. Since 2013, Kokoa Kamili has worked closely with farmers, distributors, and chocolate makers to bring a country known mostly for Mount Kilimanjaro and safari trips to the forefront of the craft chocolate scene. One of the founders, Brian LoBue, will walk us through the ethics and sustainability of that journey and the impact bean to bar chocolate has had on the lives of Tanzanians where Kokoa Kamili operates.
